Do you love what you do for a living?
I remember hearing this quote when I first started out as a recruiter:
If you love what you do, you’ll never have to work another day in your life.
I remember feeling drawn to those words but not knowing exactly how to apply them to my work life.
In my work as a business consultant I’ve noticed that a consistent theme among high performers is that they love what they do. Meaning they follow their bliss. They love their niche. They love their clients. They love the hunt.
Your own internal sense of passion can lead you, like a series of blinking lights, to the people and opportunities that will lead to fulfillment.
Consider this quote from Joseph Campbell:
If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a track that has been there all the while, waiting for you. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.
Here’s what Thoreau said about this:
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
When I started in the business I worked in Los Angeles for a firm that did contingency IT recruiting. I noticed that when I went on client meetings, I’d often find myself yawning uncontrollably when my clients talked about various aspects of their information technology goals and needs. There’s nothing wrong with IT as a niche but for me, it was boring.
Then by accident, I began doing some IT searches for large law firms. I found that when I went to meet with department heads within law firms, my ears perked up and I was very interested in learning about their business. To this day, I’m not really sure what the attraction is, I just know that I enjoy working with them.
So after several years of being bored by IT searches, I decided to take a bold stand and declare my firm as a firm that only works with law firms, and on a retained basis. This seemed like a bold move at the time but it was where my passion was leading me and I felt excited by the challenge.
My billings and enjoyment of the business skyrocketed when I finally decided to follow my bliss and work the way I wanted to and with the clients I wanted to.
How to apply this to your desk or office:
- Follow your bliss when selecting the clients you’ll work for.
- Follow your bliss when deciding what niche or sub niche to focus on.
- Follow your bliss when it comes to the parts of the recruiting process you’ll execute vs. the parts you’ll farm out to others.
- Follow your bliss when it comes to the new projects, strategic alliances or business relationships to take on.
- Follow your bliss when deciding what terms you’ll accept and reject.
- Follow your bliss when setting goals and deciding how large or small your business should ought to be.
- Follow your bliss in regards to work/life balance and time off.
And remember,
If you love what you do, you never have to work another day of your life.